Approvals management platform Revoke has issued a fix aimed at mitigating a new crypto scam, which involves luring crypto users into revoking “fake approvals” and then tormenting them with unreasonably high transaction fees.
On July 9, Revoke.cash stated that it had received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.
Yesterday, we received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.
As it turns out, this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these "fake approvals." pic.twitter.com/vpY2sGIv0T
— Revoke.cash (@RevokeCash) July 9, 2023
In reality, scammers have been using what are known as "gas tokens" to trick victims into thinking they have suspicious transaction approvals.
"As it turns out, this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these 'fake approvals'."
gasoline tokens they were developed when the Ethereum network fees began to rise. Users could effectively cheap gas store during periods of low network demand.
“This allowed users to mint gas tokens when rates were low and burn them when rates were high, effectively 'locking in' the lower rate,” Revoke explained.
However, Revoke said that scammers have been creating fake gas tokens that they airdrop with fake approvals that users think they should revoke.
The fake tokens have been programmed to generate a large amount of gas during the revoked transaction and the newly minted gas tokens are sent back to the scammers, leaving the victim with a high transaction fee.
Revoke said it has now addressed the issue by adding a control that disables the revocation of approvals if there is an excessive gas fee. He advised users to ignore fake approvals:
“The best thing to do with these fake endorsements/fake tokens is to ignore them. As long as you don't interact with them, they can't steal your funds."
Related: 'Scammers' Impersonate Crypto Twitter Users in Threads as Nearly 100 Million Sign Up
Revoke is a preventative tool that helps users practice safer crypto wallet behavior by managing or revoking active approvals like those no longer required by DeFi protocols.
Platforms like Revoke have been urging users to revoke approvals for Multichain following the billionaire exploit the network on July 7. This has given scammers a new avenue to lure victims into approving their bogus transaction reversals.
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